Henry and the Chocolate Factory
by vonniebeth
Summary: A story of a young boy named Henry Bucket, who tries to find a pink ticket to visit Madden's Fine Chocolate Factory. Parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory featuring Next to Normal. Please read and review.


**yay, a new story! I got this idea months ago before I started writing on here, but now that I'm not so busy with everything, I finally have time to write this. Henry's last name is Bucket in this cuz it sounds awesome (but my last name for him still remains) and I had to put in Grandpa Joe cuz he's epic and I have 0 imagination right now. Starts out slow, but it WILL get better. Please let me know what you think**

This is the story of a lonely boy named Henry Bucket. He lived with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, and his grandparents in a very small house on the edge of town. There was Grandma Annie and Grandpa Andy, the parents of Mrs. Bucket, and Grandma Josefina and Grandpa Joe, the parents of Mr. Bucket. The Bucket family was very poor, and could barely afford to keep themselves alive. Mr. Bucket had a job at a factory outside of their town as back-up maintenance at a bee farm. Although life for them was tough, Henry was the luckiest boy alive… he just didn't know it yet.

One day, Henry was walking home after running his afternoon paper route when he passed by the place known as Madden's Fine Chocolate Factory. He ran home immediately, cuz he knew that Grandpa Joe would know something on it. Why, he knew EVERYTHING… sort of. "Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Joe!" Henry yelled as he burst through the front door.

"Jeez, Henry, what's wrong with you?" Mrs. Bucket yelled as she was making their usual dinner of cabbage water. "You nearly scared me half to death and almost frightened the cabbage."

"Mo-om, this is important."

"I'm interested in hearing what he has to say," Grandpa Joe said. One thing Henry liked about Grandpa Joe was that he always stood up for him. "Now, what's the excitement about?"

"I passed by this place on my way home from the paper route. It was called Madden's Fine Chocolate Factory. Do you know anything about it?"

"Do I? Of course I do. I used to work there myself many, many moons ago. Shall I tell you about those days? Of course I will. Dr. Madden, he's the guy who owns the place, he made up many things that only he could ever imagine. Bubble gum that never lost its flavor, ice cream that never melted, little squirt guns filled with cheese… he was quite the imaginative genius. In fact, people began to be jealous of him and his ideas. Eventually, they started taking ideas and turning them into their very own, making Dr. Madden so upset that he shut down the factory forever and I lost my job. It was only recently that Dr. Madden started selling things again, but nobody has ever seen or heard from him since that day he shut it down."

"Were you one of those jealous workers?"

"Heavens, no! On the contrary. I admired his work and loved seeing what he came up with. I only dreamed that I could be as good as him, but I know that it's not reality."

"Time for dinner," Mrs. Bucket announced as she served the bowls of cabbage water.

"Aren't we going to wait for Dad?" Henry asked.

"No. He has to work late tonight. He probably won't be home until way past your bedtime. He says that the bee farm is finally getting a little use for the back-up maintenance."

"Wonderful. Does that mean things will get better?"

"Hopefully someday, Henry."

"I like pie," Grandma Annie suddenly blurted out. The family chose to ignore what Grandma Annie said. She often lost her train of thought and did not know what was going on about 99 percent of the time.

After dinner, Henry did his homework and watched the news program with his grandparents. "Breaking news," the newscaster said. "Dr. Madden, the owner of Madden's Fine Chocolate Factory, has sent out 5 pink tickets. The only way to find these tickets is to buy Madden's chocolate bars, but only 5 of them in the whole universe will contain 1. It is said that those that find the tickets are to spend a day in the factory, which had allegedly been closed for the past decade…"

"Oh my gosh," Henry gasped. "Grandpa Joe, do you think I have a chance?"

"Do I?" Grandpa Joe exclaimed. "I think you have a chance of finding all 5."

Henry laughed. "I have the same chance as anyone else, don't I?"

"Naw. You've got more of a chance cuz you deserve it more than anyone else."

"Are you being serious?"

"Of course he's not," Grandpa Andy said as he whacked Grandpa Joe on the back of the head with a newspaper. "Don't let him give you any false hope. You have the same chance as anyone else in this."

Grandpa Joe put his hand on the back of his head, wincing in pain. "Don't bring him down now, Andrew," he said.

"Well, we shouldn't bring his hopes up if he doesn't find a pink ticket."

"Don't you have faith in him?"

"Don't you have a brain?"

"I think I should go to bed," Henry said. "It's getting kind of late."

"Okay. Good night, Henry," both grandfathers said in unison.

"Night, Henry," Grandma Josefina said as Grandma Annie smiled and waved.

"Night, darling," Mrs. Bucket said.

"Good night, everyone," Henry called as he walked into his bedroom. He lied down on his bed, but he did not fall asleep right away. He couldn't help but think of the pink tickets and if he really had a chance at finding one. Just as he began to fall asleep, he heard his father walk through the front door. The way he was walking, he knew that something couldn't be right.


End file.
